Herbal Medicine and Forest School

Herbal Medicine and the Forest School

Friday 20th June 2014 at Holt Wood, Devon

This was a training day for Forest School educators with aims to answer the questions as follows: Which native trees and plants can be used medicinally? How can young people engage with medicinal and other useful plants in a safe way? What sort of activities are relevant in a Forest School context? Where can further information be obtained about medicinal plants? This day was designed for all involved with Forest School activities and no prior experience or knowledge of herbal medicine was required. Our programme included a welcome, info pack with programme, health and safety, risk assessment, plant identification. The day was organised under the auspices of the Medicinal Forest Garden Trust.

 

People who attended the day, travelled from as far apart as Cornwall and Somerset, and are working in various contexts from volunteer to teacher, some with primary school aged children, others working with a wider age range. The two leaders of the event were Helen Kearney, MNIMH and Anne Stobart, MNIMH, both medical herbalists.

Feedback from participants was very positive

One participant said 'This was all new to me but I enjoyed finding out about plant and tree uses, it was like opening secret doors'. Others commented on a good balance of practical and theory, meeting others and sharing ideas good for activities. Everyone took away cuttings and told us that they could use the info in a variety of ways, saying things like 'All of the practical activities were useful'. We had many requests for more sessions and will be looking at that in the near future. 

Herbal and garden history talk

Lady Boscawen's seventeenth-century plant notebook: Some issues in herbal and garden history

To what extent did housewives grow and collect herbs for medicinal use in early modern times? Contemporary printed sources suggest that women took much responsibility for gardens and household healthcare in this period. However, there has been limited scholarly study of the extent to which women planned or carried out such activities.  Dr Anne Stobart, a medical herbalist and member of the Herbal History Research Network, will consider these questions and describe her research interests.  Anne was based at Middlesex University in London from 2000 and held the post of Director of Programmes for Complementary Health Sciences until 2010. She completed her PhD in 2009; her thesis focused on seventeenth-century domestic medicine in South-west England.  

Where:  Kenn Centre, Kennford, Exeter, EX6 7UE.

When:  Wednesday 19th March 2014 at 2.30p.m. (Doors open at 2.00p.m.)

Cost:  £5 (DGT members)/ £6 (non-members) to include afternoon refreshments.  Please book before Monday 17th March 2014.

To book, please download a booking form here or contact Dr Ian M Varndell (tel. 07769 335506 or email events@devongardenstrust.org.uk).

Devon Gardens Trust (DGT) is an active charitable company which aims to:

• promote the education of the public on matters connected with the arts and sciences of garden land;
• preserve, enhance and re-create for education and enjoyment of the public whatever garden land may exist in and around the county of Devon.

Herbal history edited book published

Hooray! As co-editor of this book on herbal history research I am so pleased it has finally been published. It is not specifically to do with Holt Wood but this is one reason why I have had so little time in the last year! This book is an academic text aimed at encouraging more herbal history research - the original chapter contributors came together in 2010 at a seminar on herbal history. The full reference is:

Susan Francia and Anne Stobart, eds. Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.

 

Hot off the press!

There are chapters from historians, medical herbalists and others on a wide range of historical aspects of herbal medicine including classical thought, midwifery, Culpeper, Parkinson, Turner. materia medica, archaeology, ethnobotany, and more. Further details at:

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/critical-approaches-to-the-history-of-western-herbal-medicine-9781441184184/

The Herbal History Research Network continues to organise seminars in London and the South-west of England - the next one is all about herbal illustration and identification - details at:

http://events.history.ac.uk/event/show/12436

Overlooking River Torridge, February 2014

I shall continue researching and writing but hope that there will be a bit more time for Holt Wood! The spring weather gives us hope that conditions will be right for some work clearing brambles soon.